1 [1] The Fall of Willow's 645th
"Rise, Child."
A voice spoke to her.
A vision of a person holding a hand out to her wearing a warm smile.
She reached her hand out, but just as she was about to touch them she was violently ripped away from the vision.
Consciousness came back to her, reality greeted her with a harsh rush of water to her ears.
She tried to scream, initially panicking from being placed in a situation such as this but the salty ocean water inhaled in her nose and bubbles escaped from her lips, almost drowning her.
Her pain sensor came back to her a few seconds after and she feels a sharp stab from her side crawl to the surrounding area and it was painful.
She looked down to inspect but a cloud of blood obstructed her view of how badly was she injured. She tried to press her hand on it, at least do something to stop the bleeding but an object hindered her effort and she winced at the pain.
She left her wound to itself. She was running out of oxygen.
She began swimming to the surface. Albeit, slowly.
She tried her best to put little movement around the wound, but with her evident bad luck that loomed around her over the years, her efforts went on painfully.
She held in her silent screams, resisting every urge to inhale and exhale.
Her tears merged with the water around her, but she was still swimming, determined not to drown and hopefully live another day.
Finally, she reached the top.
She took the biggest inhale she's ever done in her entire life. Oxygen filled her lungs.
Then she began coughing, for as soon as air filled her lungs, the water she'd inhaled had to be released someway and soon.
She was about to give herself a pat in the back for not drowning when a rough wave slapped her right on the face, again inhaling a bit of ocean water which she coughed out.
She needed to get out of the water. If not for the waves drowning her, then her exhaustion will.
She closed her eyes and focused on the flow of mana, locating the chunks that were closest to her. It was hard to concentrate when there was water crashing on her but she made do and not a second later, she opened her eyes with renounced vigour.
She started swimming toward the closest chunks of mana, again trying not to agitate the wound on her side.
It was hard. Every movement was heavy and took more effort the more she moved. She honestly thought she wasn't going to make it, the mana feels so far away and she only held so little energy left in her.
She felt like fainting at any moment.
And then she reached the shore.
Her legs and hands were scraping on the rocks as she desperately crawled herself out of the water, grunting and moaning in pain that ached everywhere in her body.
She panted heavily, trying to catch her breath as relief flooding and warming her chest.
She stayed in that position for a while, catching her breath and trying to stop herself from fainting, or she'll be dead before she can wake up the second time with how much she can feel herself bleeding.
Slowly, she painfully rolled on her back. One hand came down to her wound.
When she looked down, she couldn't help but whine pathetically to see a huge piece of glass sticking out of the side of her stomach.
Her wound throbbed much more painfully this time.
"Come on, Celine..." She muttered, trying to hype herself up and get this over with.
She mustered mana on her other hand and air began to gather and glow a green light. A basic healing spell from the Wind Element.
She grabbed the glass with one hand and with a deep breath, she pulled it out and a loud scream tore through her throat, the pain being as painful as it sounds. Quickly, she placed her other hand on top of the wound, groaning at the cold contact of the spell on her hot skin.
Her spell started it's work. It took a few minutes before the wound had closed up and the pain had finally passed.
Celine relaxed on the sand. She was exhausted.
She closed her eyes and again takes a deep breath in.
The scent of burnt, rotting flesh reached her nose.
She curled to her side as she retched her dinner, the scent tingling her nose and it only made her puke out more.
She takes a deep breath in one of her intervals and focused on forcing her vomit down her throat. And after a shuddering exhale, she takes another deep breath.
Again the same scent of burnt, rotting flesh hits her nose but this time she made sure she didn't vomit.
Celine looked up, trying to find where that horrid smell was coming from.
Her eyes immediately locked on to the lifeless ones of her Father.
"D-dad..." She croaked, one hand trying to reach out to him. "Daddy...?"
It was then that she noticed where her Father's head was sitting on and her eyes went wide.
There was a huge pile of burnt bodies, some of them she recognised but the others no.
"H-how... how did it come down to this..?" She stuttered, voice cracking as tears streamed down her cheeks that went unnoticed. Slowly, the girl started crawling toward the pile.
Celine caressed the cheek of an unidentifiable face of a person that had been burnt alive.
How did it come to this?
:Flashback
They were attending an event that celebrated the Graduation of Willow Academy's 645th.
She was so excited to see her older friends that had graduated a year or two before her to become Knights of their own. To catch up and maybe even get some advice for working on the field as a proud Knight.
Her older brother, the smug bastard he is, was the one that took them around the venue, knowing every room by memory and introducing it to them with a professional tilt of his voice. He recounted the many times he's been here for his job as an Assistant Adviser for the Knight's Architectural Department.
And while his stories were fun, she really wanted to be with her friends. She gave her lover a playful wink and she pulled her away from her family, the both of them sneaking out of the tour and meet up with their friends by the buffet.
They meet up with hugs and squeals, happy that they all managed to graduate the grueling training that was the academy. Not long after, her older friends had joined them and they erupted in happy laughs and conversations.
They were crying and cheering. Toasting from their success and wishing each one good luck for their future adventures. They were so happy and so lively.
But then the attention turned to Celine, who wasn't even trying to hide her relationship with the woman beside her. Always looking back at her and whispering sweet words in her ear before giving her temple occasional kisses with her arm around her waist, keeping her close.
Her friends drilled her with questions, wanting to know every detail from how they met and got together. Celine's countless failed courtships for countless of women were no secret, and they were genuinely curious how the fuck these two got together.
Teasing began soon after, and Celine was blushing in embarrassment in each and every one of them.
If it weren't for her lover holding her and laughing with her friends, she would have ran to the other side of the room and hide herself from embarrassment.
All in all the event was going well. Everyone was enjoying their time.
Then there was a fire.
At first, the people shrugged it off. Too confident that a small spark won't be doing any serious damage. As soon as the Knights—that includes Celine's older friends—ran toward the burning corner, the chatter continued on like normal thinking that the problem had been already solved.
Celine and her friends began their conversations again, happy smiles still present on their face.
A fearful scream then echoed in the banquet.
The Knights that were sent to take care of the fire were seen burnt to a crisp and the fire was not put out. The sudden deaths made the people gasp.
Celine had frozen in place, along with the others in her friend group.
They... the others died... that included her older friends...
Her hand shook so much that it broke the plate and glass she was holding, bringing a scream from her lover to which she immediately began apologising to as she walked them away from the broken glass on the floor.
Her lover was as shaken up as she was, but she managed to smile and hold her cheek reassuringly and Celine was sucking up in her affection.
They all turned their attention back to the ever-growing fire.
A Family Head with high affinity over water stepped forward and casted a basic water spell, commenting at how weak the Knights were these days which almost made Celine want to bash his head in for saying such things.
Though as soon as his water touched the flame, the fire crawled on the mana that connected to the man and to the fire like a parasite and traced back to the man, engulfing him in its flames.
Silence.
Sweet utter silence.
And then there was a panic.
Celine's Mother ordered everyone to evacuate the building. People immediately headed her words and rushed to the exits only for the few Knights that were left alive, stood in their way, weapons held against them.
People screamed for them to move away. One tried to use force only for her to get decapitated.
They all ran away from the exits and into the middle of the room while the people from the decapitated person's family retaliated by casting spells toward them.
Her Mother was about to warn them not to, but she was too late. As soon as the spells hit, the members of that family was engulfed in flames.
One thing led to another, then Celine was being carried by someone.
"Get her out of here!" Her Mother's voice called out to them. She looked up just in time to see her beautiful figure get sliced in half.
She screamed at her friend to let her go, she punched his shoulders as strong as she did but they weren't allowing her to.
"Give her to me." It was the voice of her older brother, she struggled but it was futile. He had already casted a paralysis spell on her. "Calm, Sister..."
"M-Mom..."
She saw her friends jump in the way of every blasts and blows that were aimed at her. She saw each one of them get set to flames and she felt her heart tearing to pieces.
"I love you." She heard her lover whisper to her ear. She watched as the girl stopped and casted one of her strongest seals, preventing anything from going past her.
Celine broke out of the paralysis spell and she screamed for her lover to don't do it. But it was too late. Far too late. She watches them burn her and slice her head off of her body.
"Break that Window!"
Her heart shattered like the glass that was broken behind her and Celine felt herself being thrown out.
The last thing she saw was the sad smile of her older brother before it was his turn to go up in flames.
All she can ask why it all had happened before she plunged into the water.
:Flashback End
"I'm so sorry..."
She cries softly as she re-lives the memories again and again, torturing herself with 'what ifs'.
